On February 5th, the day after Landen arrived, led by Neil, Landen and Ben Kaul arrived at the palace area of Night-Kirin City, the encampment Neil had chosen for Landen.
From outside the city, Padmira Mountain, where the Royal Palace is located, appears to be only about 300 meters high, with the main building adding less than 100 meters to the height of the hill. However, once he arrived at the palace square, Landen realized that the entire palace and the hill were one unified whole.
After entering the palace walls from the foot of the mountain and passing through some dilapidated palace buildings, you can see the Padmira mountain. The foot of the mountain is full of various tall buildings, the largest of which is over a hundred meters high including the foundation and roof. The roof extends directly to the mountainside, and if you continue upwards, you can see the palace on the mountaintop.
Neil led Landen into a building, and after walking down a gentle slope for a few meters, they arrived at the camp. Looking at the numerous tents in front of him, Landen knew that this was the most suitable place to set up camp.
"We asked the Mage, and he estimates that these spaces were used as wine cellars or storage rooms before, so they're very dry," Neil said, pointing to the huge space. "The outer door connects to this huge cave; we could easily move our entire camp inside!"
"Of course, your tent has been arranged in another room, which is a little smaller than this one and has a separate exit." Neil had already arranged the core tent area in Landen, and Nila had already led people there to set up the tents.
"How do we prepare food and house the livestock?" Landen asked frequently as he toured the camp with Neil.
"There's a special room for starting fires nearby. Mage Wendy has already repaired part of the Magic Array. Before, we lived and cooked outside, and came back to sleep at night," Neil quickly replied. Landen had emphasized fire safety more than once. "In addition, there's a special area for Animal Pen around the Royal Palace, and we've arranged for people to manage it."
"Okay, have you been inside the other rooms?"
"No, as Archon Lannia requested, everyone was to repair the buildings surrounding the Royal Palace, and no one was allowed to enter the palace. So I had the north and south stairwells sealed off."
The space Territory Residents are currently stationed is just the Royal Palace's storeroom; the actual palace rooms can only be accessed by passing through several staircases in the mountainside.
"Ben?" Landen watched Ben Kaul hurry past without even having a chance to greet him, and knew that this guy must have seen some incredible Magic Array.
Not wanting to disturb Ben's enjoyment or continue the inspection, Landen simply took Neil to the nearby South Staircase Hall of the Royal Palace, preparing to explore the Royal Palace.
The South Staircase Hall is a huge cylindrical room surrounded by a circular staircase, with a massive black sculpture in the center and a series of openings at the top that allow natural light to stream in.
As they ascended the circular staircase, the half-open doors on each floor resembled black holes, making Landen hesitant to enter. He could only lead Neil up to the top floor, connected by the stairwell.
After searching for a while, Landen finally found a terrace from which he could overlook the entire Night-Kirin City.
More than a month ago, Landen also went up to Dragon Terrace Mountain, but the mountain vegetation of the Royal Capital was so dense that he could only see the surrounding mountains and not the city at all.
The view from the top of the Royal Palace in Night-Kirin City is now quite different. Two Suns rises, the ruins of the city and the vanguard of Landen's troops entering the city are laid bare before Landen's eyes.
It was a feeling that was hard to describe. Looking at the vast ruins, Landen kept trying to restore the city's former prosperity and bustling traffic, imagining the boatloads of salt that used to come from the Eastern Region and the Iron Mine ore that came from the Western Region.
"This is my city!" Landen, though seemingly calm, was inwardly surging with excitement. " Neil, let's go and take a look at the rooms in each Royal Palace later, and see which items are well preserved, so we can be prepared for the future."
"Huh?... Yes, sir!" Neil didn't understand what Landen meant for a moment, but he still subconsciously accepted the order.
Throughout the day, Landen, with Neil by his side, explored the various rooms of the Royal Palace using the Illumination Rod Wendy had made.
To Landen's surprise, the Royal Palace was remarkably well-preserved. Most of the decorations, ornaments, sculptures, and books in the rooms were still in their original places, and the bedroom furniture was mostly intact, except for the bedding which was covered in dust. The enormous Banquet Hall was so large that even a light stick could not reveal the entire space.
After touring the Royal Palace, Landen couldn't find the treasure vault and Vault he was most looking for, nor could he find any rooms related to the Archmage.
From any perspective, Landen had returned to the Night-Kirin City Royal Palace, not occupied Night-Kirin City. This castle was his home, so Landen couldn't "go all out" and take whatever he could get his hands on as he had done in the Salt Mine before. He could only ask his subordinates to start cleaning some of the rooms and halls at night.
The next day, Landen advised Ben to take a walk around the city first, since there would be plenty of time and opportunities to copy the Magic Array in the future, and they should first get an overall impression of the city.
So Landen, along with Ben, Pete, and several Knight, wandered aimlessly throughout the city.
"I want to build some workshops in that area," Landen said. His group first arrived at the city's east gate, the closest to the palace area. Landen pointed to the open space outside the gate, "This area borders a tributary of the Gallop River to the north, making future transportation very convenient."
There are two tributaries of the Gallop River near Night-Kirin City. One flows from west to east, passing north of Night-Kirin City, and then splits into a branch in the northeast, with one branch flowing southeast, while the main river flows east.
Another waterway runs from west to south, turning south in the northwest of Night-Kirin City, parallel to the western wall of Night-Kirin City, and heading south to Korniko Pass. It has been the main waterway from Night-Kirin City to the Dragon Kingdom since ancient times.
Ben told Landen yesterday that about 20 kilometers east of the city was the former Industrial County of Night-Kirin City. There used to be dozens of workshops there. Salt Mine from the plains could be unloaded by boat at the docks in the Industrial County, refined in the workshops, and then transported back to the Alchemy Workshop in Night-Kirin City by waterway to be made into alchemical products.
Landen didn't quite understand why the Industrial Zone would be built 20 kilometers east of the city, but Ben couldn't explain it either.
During today's on-site investigation, Landen discovered that although there is no natural channel of the Gallop River on the east side of the city, there is an artificial Canal that extends from a tributary on the Gallop River and passes through a pond outside the Gallop City, which is the branch channel of the tributary of the Gallop River mentioned earlier.
As Landen continued to explore the city, he also made plans for the future Night-Kirin City. Outside the city's north wall, a large area of tents was to be built to house the livestock of the Barbarian who would come here to spend the winter each year.
Since the Barbarian were settled outside the north wall, a large number of Forage Warehouse, Slaughterhouse, Meat Processing Workshop, Meat Warehouse, and so on also needed to be set up.
The northwest part is to be the future gathering place for the Magic Academy of Night-Kirin City. Landen is determined to build a Magic Tower here so that every talented Magic Apprentice can go in and study.
Then, to the south, a large number of farms, mills, and grain warehouses were to be established South Gate.